'Armoe Soeckt List' : Poverty Leads to Cunning

PROVENANCE:
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 6 March 1942, lot 140 (as dated 1626);
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 17 November 1994, lot 74;
Private Collection.

NOTE:
The proverb Armoe soeckt list also occurs in a number of grisailles and polychrome paintings representing 'A blind organ grinder and a woman with a rumbling pot (see A. Plokker, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne (1589-1662). De grisailles met spreukbanden, Leuven/Amersfoort 1984, pp. 66-71, nos. 19-20, and E. Buijsen, L.P. Grijp, Music and Painting in the Golden Age, The Hague/Zwolle 1994, pp. 306-11, no.43). In Tafereel van de belacchende werelt (Den Haag 1635), a book written by the versatile Van de Venne himself, the meaning of this verb is explained on pp. 66-7:
'Arremoe soeckt list, Poverty leads to cunning,
Daar geen Rijcken op en gist. Of which a rich man has no idea.
Om de Kost wordt veel versonnen, Much is plotted to make a living,
Kost wordt ongelijck gewonnen' Livelihood is unequally earned.

The figures of the blind man leaning on the lame woman were used more often in similar poses by Van de Venne (see for instance L.J. Bol, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne. Painter and Draughtsman, Doornspijk 1989, p.84, reproduced p. 80, fig. 68A)

Infrared photography done by Drs. Edwin Buijsen has revealed underdrawing in the man and woman in the foreground as well as in the group of beggars to the right. The sketchy nature of the underdrawing is typical for the working procedure of Van de Venne dated after 1627-36. The cursory lines only provisionally indicate the position and shape of the figures, which were further determined during the paint stage. The underdrawing contains even less information than in most of his earlier grisailles. In paintings by Van de Venne dated after 1637 no underdrawings have so far been detected with infrared light which suggests that from then on he prepared his works directly in paint.